The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas has approved Hilcorp Alaska’s lease plan of operations for its Whiskey Gulch exploration prospect on the Kenai Peninsula north of Anchor Point, filed Jan. 6 (see story in Feb. 7 issue of Petroleum News).
In a March 19 approval decision, the division said exploration phase work at Whiskey Gulch is for state leases ADL 392664 and 392666. Hilcorp’s plan is for a 300 foot by 400 foot 2.75-acre gravel exploration pad and two exploration wells.
The company’s proposed schedule calls for construction of the gravel pad and improvement of the access road in April, followed by drilling the first well in May, testing of that well in June, followed by suspension, drilling of the second well in July, followed by testing in August and suspension of the well in September.
Temporary facilities will be removed after exploration activities are complete and the wells will be plugged and abandoned, or suspended, according to Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulations. The gravel access road and pad will remain for use of the private landowner, the division said.
The first well, Whiskey Gulch 1, is a gas/oil exploration well; the second well, Whiskey Gulch 14, is a gas-only exploration well.
The division said WG No. 1 will be drilled to a bottomhole some 10,000 feet to the southeast of the Whiskey Gulch pad, and WG No. 14 will extend some 10,000 feet to the northeast of the pad.
Southern Kenai
Whiskey Gulch is Hilcorp’s second prospect on the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula. (See map in print version of this story and in pdf of online version.)
Hilcorp’s Seaview gas field, south of Anchor Point, is a confirmed gas discovery, with a unit and participating area already approved by the division and a discovery well, Seaview 8, ready for production.
Hilcorp acquired an aerial gravity and magnetics survey in the Seaview area in 2015, shot 20.54 miles of 2D seismic in 2016, drilled seven shallow stratigraphic test holes in 2017 and the Seaview 8 exploration well in 2018, which resulted in a Tyonek formation natural gas discovery.
The company had planned to bring Seaview online in November, but there were construction delays in the 2-mile pipeline required to get the gas to market and production startup is now slated for this summer (see story in Feb. 28 issue of Petroleum News).
Seaview will be Hilcorp’s 16th producing Cook Inlet field.
Facilities
The pad at Whiskey Gulch will be “as close to the eastern extent of the parcel as is practicable, while avoiding wetlands and environmentally sensitive areas, to maximize the distance between the exploration pad and adjacent landowners to the west,” the division said, with as much natural foliage as possible kept in place to “minimize potential visual and acoustic impacts on neighboring landowners and residential areas.”
Lights on the drilling rig and mobile light plants will be pointed down toward activities on the pad, as much as safety concerns will allow.
Proposed access road improvements and the gravel pad will be on uplands, utilizing previously disturbed roadways and gravel extraction wherever possible.
Because Whiskey Gulch is on private land it is not expected to impact subsistence or other fish and wildlife uses, the division said.
In its March 19 approval the division said it had amended the company’s plan to protect the state’s interest, to include Cook Inlet areawide mitigation measures, and also is requiring status reports on activities under the plan on May 1 and Nov. 1 each year until a final completion plan was filed.
